Environmental Health Divisions

It had several other names earlier in its history, including the Office of Stream Pollution Investigations and Division of Sanitary Engineering Services.

During and after World War II, it expanded into additional aspects of environmental health, becoming the Division of Sanitary Engineering Services in 1954.

[1] In 1913, the former Cincinnati U.S. Marine Hospital building was reopened as a Field Investigation Station for water pollution research.

[1][2][3] Its location in Cincinnati was due to the environmental effects of the industrial cities of the Ohio River on safe drinking water.

[2][4] Wade Hampton Frost was the first head of the program, which included four other commissioned medical officers and support staff, and five branch laboratories along the Ohio River.

[2] It was initially called the Stream Pollution Investigations Station and focused on natural purification of streamwater, and water treatment systems.

[5] During and after World War II, the facility expanded into air, industrial, and chemical pollution and radiological health research.

[9] The same year, the environmental health programs moved from the former Marine Hospital to the newly constructed Robert A. Taft Sanitary Engineering Center,[1][10] which consolidated seven PHS locations in Cincinnati.

[13] Just prior to their incorporation into EPA, the Bureau of Water Hygiene had additional facilities in Narragansett, Rhode Island and Manchester, Washington; the Bureau of Radiation Health in Las Vegas and Montgomery, Alabama; and the National Air Pollution Control Administration in Ann Arbor, Michigan and at the Denver Federal Center in Lakewood, Colorado.